


Bottomless Darkness

by MiriamKenneath



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Character Death, Hero Joins Villains, Injury Recovery, M/M, Sith Luke Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:21:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23862964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiriamKenneath/pseuds/MiriamKenneath
Summary: Luke gives in to his hate and strikes Vader down. Now, the Emperor would have Luke rule at his side.
Relationships: Sheev Palpatine/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25
Collections: Id Pro Quo 2020





	Bottomless Darkness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [handschuhmaus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/gifts).



He dreamt he was falling.

It was not always quite so dry on Tatooine. When Luke Skywalker was a boy, he thought the darkest place in the galaxy was Anchorhead’s ancient well. The shaft was over a hundred and fifty meters deep, dug out over successive generations in pursuit of ever diminishing groundwater. He and the other children used to peer down the opening of the well and shout into it, listening to their voices echo back to them from the blackness. Sometimes they would try throwing pebbles into the well. But no matter how hard they strained their ears, the well was so deep that they never heard the pebbles strike bottom. Sometimes Luke imagined that their pebbles fell forever.

This dream was like that. He was falling, weightless, into the endless darkness. There was no rush of air, no stinging of the wind on the surface of his skin, no pressure or weight constricting his lungs. This could be freefall; he could be adrift in the vacuum of space. Yes, it was dark enough to be outer space. There was no light, not even if he strained his eyes. Even the stray swirls and phantasmal flashes of idling optical nerves were absent.

Then, with a lurch and a jolting halt, like a return to realspace after a long journey at hyperspeed, Luke awoke. ‘Wha – ? Where – where am I…?’ When he tried to sit upright, he realised he couldn’t move. He strained, twisting, arching his spine. His wrists and ankles were bound, and he sensed that he was being monitored by several banks of blinking, twittering machines which surrounded him on all sides. He was beginning to panic – the machines weren’t the only observers –

‘It is not yet time, young Skywalker. You were grievously injured, and you have not yet fully healed,’ said a voice somewhere near. It sounded familiar, and he would swear he’d heard that voice somewhere before, sometime quite recently. It was precise, slow, sepulchral. Soft. But no matter how Luke racked his brain, he couldn’t quite place it…

…and then a hand reached out to stroke his forehead. ‘Rest now,’ said the voice gently. The darkness of the well reclaimed him.

The next time Luke awoke, it was gradually. Not the abrupt cessation of a fall but rather like swimming, or perhaps a bubble rising up from the depths of the ocean until, finally, it breaks on the surface.

He opened his eyes. He was calm. This, he realised, was a medcentre, and he was a patient. And the person sitting beside the bed, watching over him, face partially in shadow beneath a hood…that person was…that person was…

 _Emperor Palpatine_.

Memory returned in a rush of images and emotions.

The battle over Endor. It’d been a trap, and he was watching – feeling – his friends and comrades die in a remorseless hail of plasmafire. He was trapped, too, here on the Death Star, and there was nothing he could do to intervene in the fight. He would’ve rushed in and fought for their lives. He would have fought to stop the dying, even if his own life were forfeit. That was the Luke Skywalker way.

Anger burned in his chest, corrosive as acid. This was the fault of the Empire. Yes, it was the Emperor’s fault. And it was Vader’s. His own estranged father, who refused to join with his son. Hate followed in the wake of the anger, choking hate, swelling within him like a tidal wave, a tsunami.

‘Yes,’ said the Emperor. ‘ _Yeeeessss._ Your hate makes you powerful. Use your hate and surrender yourself to the Dark Side of the Force.’

Luke called his lightsaber to his hand and struck. His first blow disarmed his father, sent the crimson Sith blade spinning. His second decapitated him.

He watched the helmeted head roll across the polished floor, breathing heavily. It came to a stop. The Emperor was on his throne, laughing, the battle continuing to rage beyond the transparisteel viewport behind him. Luke raised his lightsaber and charged.

That was when the lightning struck. The force of it lifted Luke off of his feet, and by the time he fell, crumpled into a piteous ball at the feet of the Emperor, his mind had already switched itself off. He remembered nothing after that.

‘You – you _monster_!’ shouted Luke. ‘My father is dead, and my friends are – and I…I…how _could I have_ – ?!’ The blinking, twittering machines monitoring Luke’s vital signs began to pop and sizzle. They were malfunctioning. His distress was impacting his control of the Force. Why hadn’t the Emperor killed him?! He had nothing left; he wanted to die.

‘You are more powerful than your father ever was, young Skywalker. You are worthy successor, and now that you are fully recovered, I expect you to rule the galaxy by my side,’ said the Emperor calmly.

‘Rule? _Rule?! At your side?!?!_ ’ Luke was fuming, his voice rising, shrill, hysterical. He pulled at the restraints on his wrists and ankles. They were beginning to loosen. In another moment, he’d be free. ‘I would never, I would _never_ – !’

The Emperor’s hand came to rest on his forehead, and the darkness of Archorhead’s dry well reclaimed Luke once more.

Although he was visited every day, it took several tendays before Luke could see the Emperor without shouting or attempting to attack him. Luke’s attempts were always futile, of course, for the Emperor could send him back into unconsciousness in an instant.

And besides, the Emperor seemed to take personal pleasure in Luke’s impotent rage. He did not goad him openly as he had on the Death Star, but he nonetheless seemed pleased by whatever it was he felt in the thrumming of Luke’s emotions in the Force. He would smile indulgently, like a parent watching a disobedient but otherwise beloved child. ‘Hate me, if you wish,’ he would say every time. ‘Your hate makes you stronger.’

Oddly, though, since Luke’s awakening in the medcentre, the Emperor had not done much that Luke found overtly hateful. In fact, he had actually overseen his full recovery. Whatever damage to his person the Force lightning had caused and even the minor scratches obtained from overzealous Ewoks had been tended. His prosthetic hand, which had probably been damaged as well by the lightning, had been given an upgrade.

Good health was accompanied by a marked improvement in Luke’s spirits. He found himself increasingly capable of having civil conversations with the Emperor. And the Emperor was a fascinating conversationalist.

‘I don’t understand why you would need an apprentice,’ he admitted. ‘Why not just rule forever?’

‘No one lives forever.’ The Emperor paused to chuckle to himself. ‘At least not yet. But the Sith? The Sith are forever, because every Sith Lord who came before – their knowledge, their insight, their _power_ – resides in me. When I die, you, my young apprentice, will become the next vessel to contain and embody all the power of the Sith.’

‘What if I die before you?’

‘That won’t happen.’

‘I don’t see why not, though. My fath – _Vader_ – was your apprentice, and he perished while you still live.’

The Emperor’s eyes gleamed. ‘Perished by your hand. Force-strong individuals with the requisite potential are exceedingly rare. Lord Vader served me loyally for over two decades, yet you defeated him. The power of the Sith is the power over death… _and_ life. No, young Skywalker, you will not die before me.’

Luke was silent. He wasn’t so sure about that.

After Luke was discharged from the medcentre, he was transported to the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, where he was given a lavish suite of rooms and freedom to roam. The Palace used to be the Jedi Temple before the Order was suppressed, and Luke occupied himself for countless hours learning its history.

There was plenty else to be learnt as well. The Emperor had said he would take Luke on as his apprentice and complete his training in the Force, and he was as good as his word. Chief amongst these was the ability to summon Force lightning. This had particular meaning to Luke – he, who had already lost so much, lost everyone from his previous life whom he had loved. If he succeeded, he would have absolute control over that which had almost killed him.

‘Feel it flow through you, the surge of purest emotion. Give it your desire, your anger, your hate. The more fuel you feed it, the more powerful the strike will be when you release it – ’

Blue-white lightning shot from Luke’s fingers towards the Coruscanti skies. It seared his nerve endings, burned through his veins like liquid fire, but he did not waver. Powerful, sustained. Success.

‘Very good. You have done well, my apprentice.’

Then, without warning, the Emperor clapped his hands together, and a ravening ball of Force lightning fell from the heavens and hit Luke full in the chest. Luke screamed. He felt himself immolating. Burning, burnt to ash. Blown to nothingness. Annihilated. This pain was beyond anything – anything he had experienced thus far in his Sith training – and he – and he –

He could control it. He threw his arms up, screamed louder and released the energy into the clouds. The clouds roared back at him, shooting jagged arcs of electricity in every direction, Ah yes, Luke could feel it! Pure, unadulterated, absolute power, planet-sized, and it was _everywhere_. Including _inside him_. Luke had never been so _alive_. The thrill was practically _erotic_.

He realised he was hard. It took everything he had not to tear his clothes off right then and there and stroke himself to completion. ‘Oh…oh, my Master…’ he moaned, quivering with excess adrenaline.

The Emperor just smiled knowingly. But that night, he invited Luke into his bed. And Luke, Luke accepted.

Maybe it wasn’t the future he’d imagined while staring off into Tatooine’s sunslit horizon. But Luke was starting to believe that he _had_ a future as the Sith apprentice.

Yes, he would rule at Palpatine’s side, and one day, he would inherit the Imperial throne and carry on the legacy of the Sith himself. The pleasures of power…and the pleasures of pleasure. He’d learnt to relish them.

So when the assassination attempt came, it was a surprise. He’d been sure they were dead on the Endor moon.

Luke had grown considerably in power since his twin sister and her little band of surviving Rebels had seen him last. That was not the reason why he was able to vanquish them, however. The real reason why he and not they were victorious in this instance was because – at the crucial moment – Leia had hesitated to strike the killing blow.

‘Your sentimentality is your weakness,’ said Luke.

‘I wish you’d never been born!’ she hissed in reply. She struggled in the cuffs placed on her wrists and ankles, to no avail.

‘That would mean you also would never have been born,’ he replied reasonably.

‘Yes, Luke, it would. And it’s a sacrifice I’d be willing to make.’

‘Fortunately, it is not for you to decide. No one is being sacrificed today. Not you, not your friends.’

Leia just stared. She must have expected to be killed if she failed.

‘Go ahead. Ask me why.’ They were making light conversation, Luke decided. This was not unpleasant.

‘Fine. Why?’

Luke smiled, teeth bared like a krayt dragon. ‘Because you’re no longer a threat. My power is absolute. Killing you would be weakness, not strength.’

‘What do you – ’

‘Hello, my dear, and congratulations,’ said the Emperor as he slid into the gaol cell in a whisper of immaculately black robes. ‘It seems that my young apprentice wishes that you live. I have no objections to his desires, however expressed.’

‘You…’ Leia still didn’t understand.

Luke turned away from her and towards the Emperor. He dropped to one knee in front of the Emperor, and the Emperor caressed the top of his head like a pet. Then Luke stood upright, and the Emperor pulled him into a ravishing kiss.

‘You…!’ Leia understood. She was ignored.

Luke moaned and pushed in closer, ardour overtaking his senses as the Dark Side of the Force opened like a bottomless dry well in the depths of his heart.


End file.
